Soul Eater: The Underworld Awakens

by rerocks89

This story is set during the events of the anime/manga right after the kishin Asura's revival. The story follows a new meister weapon pair as they fight against the madness that has swept across the world as well as an organization that wishes to use that madness to cultivate their power and enforce a new world order all their own.

1. Initiation

Soul Eater: The Underworld Awakens

Part 1: Initiation

The heat wave encompassed Death City as the middle of summer drew closer and closer. The sun that normally sat high laughing maniacally in the sky was unusually exuberant today. The streets that were normally bustling with people were now dead and barren with everyone striving to stay indoors to escape the unbearable heat that was being emitted. Even the market which even in the worst of climate conditions would have one or two merchants or street vendors on it trying their hardest to sell their wares was completely decrypted. Suddenly a blur rushed past in an instant and dashed behind the cover of the shadows of a nearby ally. The figure was clad in a long black cloak and hood to completely hide its face and features then proceeded to walk down the alleyway and stopped before a stone wall. It produced a long cylindrical item and jammed it into the wall. There was a flash of light, a grinding noise, and once the object was removed a marking could be seen barely visible to the naked eye. The marking was that of a circle with a caged phoenix imbedded within it. The phoenix in the marking was being lowered into a grave that had the souls of demons floating around in it and they are all reaching up ready to accept their trapped prey. With the marking set in place the figure grunted in an unearthly tone, "Four down sixteen to go." And then with a cast of his cloak disappeared into the blackness of the ally.

….

"Professor Sid I can't do this. There is now way that I can answer this question!"

The student's cry echoed throughout the tiny classroom, bouncing off the cream-colored walls and reverberating back to the large oak desk at the front of the room behind which sat the one zombified professor of the Death Weapon Meister Academy, Sid Barrett. He was a tall man, with broad shoulders and large arms. He had the look and posture of a soldier and strode across the room to the student's desk within a few strides. He had once been quite handsome but now all his skin suffered necrosis and was a sickly black and blue, his mouth a gaping hole with large teeth clenched together, his eyes were sockets that were cold and unfeeling, and in the middle of his forehead hung a bandana to cover the hole that had been the mark of his demise. Despite the appearance, the student did not flinch as the large creature put his hand down on the front of the kid's desk and looked him straight in the eyes and said, "I'm sorry but you will have to solve these problems on your own. I was never one to hand out answers to my students. That is the sort of man I was. But if you are truly struggling I would suggest refereeing to page 42 of the Purification Guide and reading the contents of the passage again." With his explanation concluded the dead man returned to his desk, sat himself down in the large backed chair and picked up his magazine from where he had left it and began to read again; when suddenly a loud automated announcement rang out over the intercom.

"Professor Sid to the dueling arena. Professor Sid to the dueling arena."

The undead professor rose from his seat in an instant, yelled to his class to keep working on the problems on the board and that when finished they should begin reading the next section of the text, and then dashed out of the room. The halls of the DWMA were quite extravagant and extensive. Each one had lines of doors that lead into each of the different classrooms and would then open up into large chamber like rooms with multiple routes that could be taken. Some went up to the higher floors, others went down to the lower sections and some might even lead you to the outside of the building. Many new students would wind up finding themselves hopelessly lost their first few months of studying at this academy but once you know where everything is then it is a simple task of having the stamina to get to the section of the building on time. The dueling arena was located on the fourth-floor east wing and Sid was now on the second floor in the northern section of the school. He quickly took the fastest route he knew to get to the east sector having to rush around many students who had just finished their classes and were walking to their next one or were on their way to some other location in the school. As he approached the arena he could hear blades clashing, the sound of ice and fire abilities being used, smell the sweat along with what could only be described as burned hair or electrified cloth, and could feel the power of the souls that were in the heat of battle being pushed to the limit of their abilities. The professor dashed into the room and ran straight up to the instructor of that class for the day, Franken Stein, and said, "You needed to see me Professor Stein?"

The professor that Sid had just ran up to was a piece of work indeed. He was a slightly older man, probably about in his early thirties to Sid's late twenties, he had the look of a scientist with large round rimmed glasses and a patched-up lab coat and shirt that were stitched together using multiple different pieces of fabric. The man himself was held together in a similar fashion. Every part of his body had stitch marks crossing over them, marking left by the experiments that he had performed upon himself. Most noticeably was the large screw that ran through left side of his head close to the temple and proceeded to protrude out the other. But the worst of it all was that behind those glasses were eyes that even in times of content had a sadistic and cruel aura about them which Sid knew all too well. But the patch-worked professor merely turned on his chair which had a congruence with the clothes that Stein wore and smiled a rather pleasant smile before stating, "I called you here because I wanted to show you something rather interesting and for you to give me your thoughts on it." And then with a gesture of his hand presented the scene that was happening before the two men.

The scene was a battle between two boys about in their late teen years. The one on the right was tall, with a muscular build and a dark tan all over his body. He brandished a large heavy battle hammer and with each swing the very air seemed to be crushed by the weight and power that the hammer had as it rushed through it. The other on the left was of a smaller stature with a strong athletic build that accentuated his nimble frame. He had no obvious weapon in his hands and quickly took stock of the situation and dove out of the way as the hammer came barreling past nicking the tips of his jet-black hair. The evader followed through in his roll and performed a handspring to launch himself back onto his feet just as the larger man began to turn and bound after him.

"That was an impressive dodge and recovery but it seems to be quite one sided with a weapon meister going against an unarmed combatant." Sid commented turning to Stein as he spoke.

"Just keep watching and you will see what I am talking about." Replied Stein without turning to Sid as he waved for him to observe the fight again with his hand.

The muscular attacker had reached the recovered defender and instead of the horizontal swipe he had used before he swung the hammer grace fully over his shoulder and under his arm into a powerful underhanded uppercut. The smaller man sidestepped the uppercut but was met with a side blow to the kidney by the shaft of the large hammer not realizing that the larger man had feinted the rest of the uppercut and had readjusted his hand position to allow him to spin the hammer sideways and catch the other off guard. The blow while not extremely powerful still had enough force to knock the athletic combatant backwards and to the side, clutching his ribs as he tumbled to the mat. The attacker did not delay in his assault and rushed after his tumbling opponent certain to finish him off while he was off balance. He went for a strong overhead swing that even if he missed the shockwave that would be created when the hammer hit the ground would cause a staggering effect on the smaller opponent which would allow for him to follow up with a sequential strike. But to the striker's surprise the other man instead of avoiding the huge swing dove straight forward and positioned himself at his feet. The unarmed man then launched himself up off the ground feet first. His feet connected with the hammer at the point in which the head connected to the shaft. There was a crackle of electricity as the heavy swing was forcefully rebounded and forced back upward. The man wielding the hammer had a look of shock on his face as his weapon was thrown back over his head, his arms struggling to keep hold of it, leaving his large midsection completely exposed. This was the exact position the other combatant wanted him in and proceeded to into a flurry of attacks to the vital points of his opponent: two punches to both sides of the abdomen right on the underside of the ribcage, a knife hand to the underside of the arm that held the hammer aloft causing it to clatter to the floor, and a force palm to the center of the solar plexus with enough force to send the other man flying to the other side of the mat. There was a flash of light as the hammer that had once been laying on the floor immobile transformed into that a similarly large built man who ran over to his companion who lay groaning on the floor about seven feet away.

Sid's eyes widened in surprise as he fully took in what he had just witnessed. "Damn, that was impressive. He took out that meister without the use of a weapon?"

"Not quite. While yes the boy did not have any obvious physical weapon in his hands he was not out there acting alone." Replied Stein as Sid turned to him a questioning look in the sockets that were his eyes. "Look closely at the forearms on the boy still standing over there" Sid did as he was told and looked over at the boy and noticed that on his forearms were a pair of gauntlets that looked to be the type typically worn by swordsmen as protection.

"No, it can't be. No one has ever been able to control her power. Every meister in the NOT class that tried and even the level two meister that tried." He paused. "Well, it did not work out well for them."

"Oh, but it is. Those would be the infinity gauntlets. A class weapon type completely unique, for that it does not possess any sort of blade or energy abilities but instead has the ability to provide defensive protection for its wielder by channeling soul energy directly to the point that is being assaulted as well as being able to generate a seemingly infinite amount of wavelength directly into the soul of its meister which will allow for a huge spike in physically prowess."

"Who is the meister then? I mean I have never seen him in any of the classes here at the academy nor have I heard about such a boy around the town. And how did these two meet?"

"I am not sure on who that boy is but as to how the two met, this is the story that was told to me by the people involved in the incident."

And with that Stein turned to the undead man, put his hand to the screw on his head and turned it three times in a counterclockwise direction and began to tell his piece as a new opponent entered the mat with the athletic boy, weapon in hand and both a confident yet slightly disturbed expression upon his face.

….

A shriek rang out as the yawning sun started to dip below the horizon and the sneering face of the moon started to appear into the sky over Death City. The sound of boots clattering against the cobblestone pathways that crisscrossed the city made a consistent tune until they abruptly stopped dead in their tracks. There were five different pair of boots now standing in the alleyway a little way off the beaten path than that of which normal townsfolk choose to take. Four pairs of those boots were obviously belonging to that of men. Each one a different type and make. The slenderest one had two navy stripes running down the side and belonged to a very typical looking boy with short brown hair, slightly built frame and of an age of about fifteen. The second more bulkier boots had sharp brown buckles and belonged to the oldest of the four boys who had decided it would look good to grow out his beard even though it really did not go with his pointed jaw line and grew in in patches across his chin. The third pair had a militaristic style to them and similarly the buzz cut hair and muscular stature of the wearer matched the persona. And lastly the fourth pair of the larger boots had spikes jutting out of the toe and heel in an obvious attempt to be intimidating. The bearer of those boots was a large boy with slicked back hair and an obnoxious condescending grin upon his face. The other pair of boots whose heels were backed up against the wall of the alley were a simple black with laces that ran up the shin of the wearer. These boots belonged to a girl of about seventeen. She had long black hair which was braided back behind her, the braid falling midway down her back. The girl had a slender face and soft features, her blazing red eyes practically glowed in the light of the setting sun as she stared down the four looming boys before her. Her fists clenched tight ready to go on the offensive yet the rapidness of her breathing and slight shaking of her muscles gave emphasis to her fatigue.

"Oh, look at what we have here. Seems like the little girl wishes to fight." Said spiked boots. "Do you think that you can really take us on. I mean you can't even get yourself a meister." The rest of the boys laughed as the leader continued. "Which I mean who could blame them, I mean how useless can a weapon be? One that has no blade, no energy, no offensive capabilities. It's no wonder why every soul has rejected you. It's because no one truly wants to use you."

The girl's fists clench tighter and she dropped herself into a lower stance to get ready for the attack. But the weakness in her arms took over and her hands drop slightly. The lead boy quickly then grabbed hold of her arm, twists it behind her back and grinded her face into the wall. The girl grunted in pain as she was forcefully held against the bricks. She struggled to break free of the large boy's grasp but her body refused to generate enough force to break his hold.

"Well even if you are not useful as a weapon, I am sure there is something that we could find in which you would be useful for." He said as his hand moved around to her midsection.

Summoning all her strength, she threw her head back, catching the grinning boy in the face. A slight crack could be heard as the force on her arm weakened. She spun around and performed a heavy overhead haymaker to her assailant but before the blow could connect the military boy and the bearded face grabbed her and held her back.

"You broke my nose, you crazy bitch!" the slicked backed boy wailed.

" Yeah well, get your way back over here so I can rearrange your jaw too." The girl shot back as she tugged to free her arms from the other two that were barring her way.

The leader looked back up and very noticeably the nose was bent in a weird direction and blood was gushing down his face. The boy came striding back over to her and blood spat from his mouth as spoke. "We were just giving you a little bit of a hazing but now you've gone and pissed me off so I think there is retribution to be paid." And with that the boy took a hold of her hair and yanked her neck, raised his fist high in the air and...

"Hey pretty boy! What do you think you're doing over there!" rang a loud voice from the other end of the alleyway.

The fist of the boy dropped down from its position but the hold on the back of the girl's hair did not loosen and he turned slightly in the direction that the owner of the voice was standing. He squinted his eyes to see the newcomer but the sun's weakening rays were set behind him so only a silhouette could be seen.

"This is none of your business so just go away. You don't want to get involved in the matters of the DWMA!" The leader shouted at the lone figure.

"Oh, so you're part of the DWMA? That big fancy academy at the top of the city, right? Great so then you will have no problem helping me find my way through town then." The mysterious figure said as he began to proceed further into the alley.

"Hey dumbass. Don't you understand that we are busy here and that you should go back to whatever stinking hole you crawled out from!" The spiked booted boy finally released the girl's hair and her head fell forward in relief to finally be free again. He took a few steps away and looked at the now clearly visible figure. It was a boy of about eighteen, he had an athletic build to him, slightly long black hair with bangs that hung down to about eye level. The boy honestly did not look like much but his posture showed his confidence and his eyes were unwavering and looked upon the group in contempt.

"Well I would but you see there is a small problem here that I believe can easily be rectified." Said the boy as he pushed his bangs back. "You four seemingly fine and impotent gentlemen simply put that girl down and drag your asses off in that other direction."

"What did you just say to us!" The two men dropped the girl, who crumbled to the ground and walked over to stand next to their leader with the fourth one falling in line behind them. We're going to make you choke on those words you stupid asshole!" And with that a light shone, and the military man disappeared and in his place the bearded man was now carrying a double bladed battle axe. "AAAAAAAHHHRRRGGGG!"

The man charged like a raging bull at the boy standing at the other end of the alleyway. His battle axe held aloft over his shoulder ready to cleave his opponent in two. He swung a powerful midsection swing and the blade hissed as it cut through the air but that was all it hit, for the other boy has nimbly leaped up into the air rebounded off the blade of the axe and spun his leg out catching the axe user in the side of his jaw. The man tumbled away and slammed into the wall of the alley as the leader looked on in shock. He soon gained his composure and commanded his partner to transform as well and within a second he was holing a brilliant double edged longsword. He lunged forward with a powerful thrust making sure that the same leaping move could not be used again. Then his arm was suddenly jerked as it was stopped partway through its attack. The other boy had rushed forward and caught the blade between his knee and elbow and was holding it in place. The unarmed boy then forcefully trust his fist down onto the grips of the hilt of the sword causing it to break out of the leader's hands and fall to the alleyway floor. The athletic boy then slammed the side of his foot into the other boy's knee and proceeded to spin around and catch his kneeling opponent in the side of the head with his heel. The slicked haired boy went sliding into some cans off to the side and the boy rushed over to the girl who laid curled up on the ground.

"Are you all right? Can you stand?" the boy tried to help the girl to her feet but she simply fell back to the ground. "Come on we have to hurry, they won't stay down for long and I do not think I am going to catch them off guard again." Again, the boy lifted the girl but she shakily stood not being able to move. "Oh screw it!" and with that the boy picked the girl up with both arms. One under her legs and the other around her back and rushed off in the other direction.

The wind rushed through the boy's black hair as he quickly dashed through the side streets of Death City. The girl in his arms groaned as he turned tight corners. Just then he started to hear the clattering of boots behind him and he knew that he was being pursued by the attackers from before. One set of footsteps came closer and closer and the boy looked to his side to see that one of the boys had caught up to him. And as he rounded a corner a fence at the end of the alley threatened to box him in.

"Ha I've got you now and there is nowhere to run!" Cackled the long sword boy as he made a wild swing that missed by a couple of inches.

"You would like to think that, wouldn't you?" and with a flying leap, the boy bounded off the top of a crate, kicked off the wall, and cleared the fence that was at the end of the alley without losing an ounce of speed.

"Hey girl, you're part of the DWMA correct?" the girl weakly nodded. "Are you a weapon or meister?" another weak response saying that she was a weapon. "Then would you be able to transform for me? At this rate they are going to catch up with us and I am not going to have enough energy to fend them off but with you in weapon form I should be able to out run them with the decreased weight."

"I'm sorry. I can't transform. Please just put me down. I can take care of myself." And with that she tried to push herself out from the boy's arms but he did not let go.

"Well then I guess I have no choice." Said the boy as he came screeching to a halt in the middle of an open street. "You rest over here and make sure to get out of here as soon as you are able to." He started to walk in the other direction before turning around and asking. "Oh, by the way what's your name?"

"Clarissa." She said while she stared at the lone boy walking into a hopeless fight.

"Well my name is Leon. And I guess it is time to pay my dues." He then walked a couple more yards away from her, ready to take on the attackers.

The four other boys came clattering to a halt before him about fifteen seconds later. Their breathing rates slightly elevated but being students of the DWMA they had enough stamina training that this was not going to affect them in the slightest and soon had themselves spread slightly apart; each of the pairs standing together waiting for the brawl that was about to begin.

"Given up and tired already? Sneered the bearded assailant.

"Nah, just figured if it's taken you guys this long to catch up with me then I should have no problem beating your slow weak asses into the ground." Leon said with a mocking grin of his own.

"Why you! Transform!" Again, the first one to attack was the axe user. This time he rushed forward on his right foot, spun the axe once above his head before bringing it down into a diagonal swipe. The defender ducked and side stepped the heavy blow and kicked his leg out into the side of the man's gut, retracted his kick into a chamber and then extended it a second time into the side of the man's head. The axe user went reeling to the other side of the street dazed from the blow to his temple. The scratching of metal against stone rushed up close as the sword user raced to reach his target. The slash that he used was one that first went horizontal left to right and then came back up to shoulder height. A two-part combination that would have connected had Leon not dove to the left under the blade as it slashed and then slammed his elbow into the shoulder of the attacker and then extended his forearm into a hammerfist follow-up. The man was sent flying to the ground a few yards away. Just then a chill suddenly came from behind and Leon leaped to the right but was too late. The ice hit him in his foot and it was frozen to the ground. He turned his head to see that the axe that was in the other man's hands had a slightly frosty look to it and ice shards were falling in the air around it.

"This is one of my special abilities! Frozen detainment!" Yelled the bearded man as he got to his feet again.

"And this is mine!" the other man was on his feet and with a blinding flash came shooting forward before leaping from the ground at a ninety-degree angle and shooting up into the sky like a rocket. "Heavenly sword!" The man came flying back down at an incredible speed and a brilliant light shown across the section of the street. "And he was no…"

The man stopped partway through for he now realized that his sword had not knocked out his opponent but instead was being held in place again, by the two hands of the person who kneeled before him.

"You might not want to celebrate just yet." Leon groaned as he then took the sword and slammed it into the ice that surrounded his foot smashing it to pieces. He dove to the side and out of the attack range of his two adversaries. "Well this is not going to go well." He mumbled to himself as he realized that one of his arms was now dislocated and that his leg was completely numb from the chill of the ice. He then heard the two dash forward weapons at the ready. He raised his arm to defend himself and sidestepped the first sword swing. Ducked under the heavy axe blow but then was met by a knee on the side of his numbed leg. The blow sent him stumbling backward where the hilt of the axe was bashed into the center of his back between his shoulder blades causing him to be forced to the ground. The two meisters then began repeatedly kicking, slashing, and bludgeoning him as he lay on the ground trying to protect what he could from their onslaught of attacks.

"No stop please! There is no reason for all of this! Just stop!" Rang out the voice of a person from behind that everyone had forgot was even there. Clarissa then ran over threw a right cross to the face of the axe user and then pulled the sword user away from the boy on the ground. "I'm so sorry but this is not going to be pleasant!" a navy light was suddenly emitted from her as her form began to change shape. Her hair twisted to one side as her arms grew smaller and he legs curled up to her chest. The look of concentration upon her face and the worry that resonated within her eyes made it clear that this was something she was not sure she was willing to do. But then her body split in two and two navy lights flew up into the sky before coming back down and embedding themselves onto Leon's wrists. The form of the lights changed shape once again, this time to that of two very simplistic gauntlets. A spark of electricity shot off from each end of the gauntlets and Leon's eyes jolted awake, his mouth opened and he emitted a terrible blood curdling scream that resounded throughout the city.

….

" And then what happened? Asked professor Sid as Stein finished speaking and took a gaze at the battle that was still going on before them.

"Not sure that is all that I could get out of the four assailants from that incident and the two over there are being very quiet about the whole ordeal. Whatever happened must be something that they are not wanting to share with the rest of the meisters here at this academy."

So, what are we going to do with them. It is obvious that they show potential. I mean so far, they have beaten most of the weapon meister combinations from the NOT class and even a few of the newly appointed one star meisters.

"Well first we're going to have to enroll him as a full-time student here and then set up the proper paperwork for them to officially become partners and then after that we should give them a few days to get used to being here at the academy before we prepare them for their first assignment that they will need to undertake."

"Understood I will make the necessary preparations for this pair, so make sure to have them come see me at my office within the next few hours." And with that the undead man left the room and strode back out into the hallway to reach the registration office.

Stein turned back to the battle that was taking place on the mat before him." The Infinity Gauntlets, Clarissa, and the boy who has no home. An interesting combination." He thought to himself. Then a smile creeped across his face as he looked closer at their souls. "I wonder how I should dissect them?

Part 1: Initiation End